First there was The Horse Whisperer. Then the Dog Whisperer and the Ghost Whisperer. Now an acupuncturist in upstate New York is pitching himself as the star of a new reality TV series called The Pain Whisperer .
“It’s going to be showing people who are just suffering horribly, unnecessarily, and have no options. And then you’ll see the transformation,” says Tom Chi, who claims he can cure people of chronic pain using an alternative therapy he calls Supertouch.
“It’s a sophisticated accupressure application, but it’s not like anything we’ve seen before,” explains Chi, who says his hands have been “super-sensitized” through kung fu exercises, enabling him to heal sore muscles, tendons and soft tissue in just one or two treatments.
“This therapy is just absolutely astounding,” he told American News Report.
Supertouch? Kung fu? Super-sensitized hands? Chi knows there will be skeptics.
“There are going to be MD’s who are going to say it’s impossible,” says Chi, who maintains that traditional Western methods of treating pain through surgery and pain medication usually fail. Chi also believes alternative forms of treatment – like chiropractic, physical therapy and massage therapy – are not as effective as they could be.
“It turns out that most of the therapy we do is misguided and that it’s easy to fix pain so that it no longer exists. There’s no more injury, there’s no more pain, they’re free,” says Chi, who adds that he has treated celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, along with congressmen, ambassadors and thousands of other patients seeking relief from pain. Some have flown in from as far away as Mexico, Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates to get treatment.
Chi treating Cassandra Peterson, a former late-night movie host who called herself Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.
“Tom Chi saved by life and my career,” actor Tom Ruffalo is quoted as saying in a promotional video. Chi is working with a production company, 315 CPW Productions, pitching The Pain Whisperer to television networks and cable channels.
Like another reality show, Extreme Home Makeover, Chi sees himself traveling the country in a bus, visiting people so disabled by chronic pain they can’t leave their homes. “We’ll go to people who can barely get out of bed and have pretty much lost their lives. We’ll just show up and fix them right on the spot,” he says.
In another episode, Chi can see himself treating patients outside a hospital. “I’m going to setup on the sidewalk with a table. And just when people walk by on crutches ask them if they would like to fix that problem. That will be a lot of fun. We’ll just do it right on the spot,” he says.
It’s all a dream for now, one of many that people have when they think about breaking into television or movies. But Chi sees his dream coming true — and millions of people with chronic pain watching his “super-sensitized hands” heal with a simple touch.